MANTRA
I sit in the quiet –
hear the sea’s waves.
I repeat my mantra –
over and over again:
‘For you alone, my
soul waits in silence.’
I say it out loud –
feel the
words vibrate in my
body.
Deep sounds touch me
–
lifting me up for the
meeting.
Mantras are doors –
ushering me
into the presence of
my Beloved -
opening up yearnings within me –
tears in my eyes –
gold and glistening
jewelry could not ignite me more!
I pause - hear the
words again –
a precious presence
overwhelms me.
I feel my breathing
in and out –
my Beloved touches me
in the rhythm.
I hear the distant
sea – roaring - mysterious.
Spring sunshine is
warm and soft –
sea shore – words
heighten the presence
– touch
of my Beloved.
Someone is here - Someone kisses me.
My Beloved visits me
– in the silence –
quiet of the
seashore.
Yellow dunes – wild
sea waves
are the palace for
the meeting.
No castle could be
more beautiful.
My Beloved loves me –
woos me –
I feel overwhelmed –
Let me rest in this
love – precious touch!
Robert Trabold
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GOD OF SILENCE
Robert Trabold
Ultimately mysticism deals with the mystery to which silence is our
only response.
Gerhard Wehr
In our journey of
contemplative prayer, it is important for us to keep our eyes on the essential
thing. We are dealing with and trying to
develop the discipline of silence so that we have an encounter with God. This
discipline is very important because it is a challenge to overcome our
wandering mind and enter into stillness. This is no small task because our
minds were made to wander and ask questions. It is in their very structure.
That is why we are constantly distracted because our minds are jumping around
and also we receive many stimuli from our daily living and activities. We are
passing through distraction into stillness and wisdom which is a gift of God
because it runs against the nature of our wandering and inquisitive mind. Realizing this, we have to then dispose
ourselves to receive this gift. We are becoming silent so that we can enter
into the infinity of God. The instrument
we use to make this transition and enter into this new dimension of prayer is
the mantra. By the faithful repetition of our chosen word, our whole being and
mind are brought to focus on the presence of the divine with us. It is our way of touching God.
God is a reality
to which we can relate to in many ways.
We can talk about and we can think of him/her. We can try to have images
of the divine in our minds and see many attempts of this in the many religious
works of art. God has many facets to which we can respond. But in silence, we are reacting to God as a
whole and to the divine presence. It is
an existential encounter of our human presence meeting the presence of the Lord
and we are meeting the divine in its totality.
This encounter in silence goes beyond the attempts to think and talk
about God. It is much more intimate and
touches us as our center and still point.
It is an intensely personal encounter deeper that the meetings we have
with other human beings because no one can be so close to us as the divine’s
presence deep within us. It is also an encounter of love because the Lord
invites us in silence to respond to his loving and caring for us in life; we
are to reciprocate this love.
So in one sense,
we can say that this is what prayer is about. It is an encounter with the
divine in silence at our center and still point. In this meeting, there is a
peace that comes to us and a deep intimacy of two presences meeting one another
in a deep existential sense. That is why we have to try to be faithful to our
repetition of the mantra because we are on a journey of love to meet the
infinite God. The mantra is our word but it is powerful because with time it
leads us into silence which is the silence of God. It is a journey which
requires our patience. Our wandering mind is always on the go. But with patience and perseverance, we will
grow in this silence through the years and the Lord will help us grow in this
discipline of silence and the repetition of the mantra. The important thing is
that we start and remain faithful to our journey into the infinite silence of
God.
